Michael Jackson estate nears agreement to sell music catalogue for $US1bn

The Michael Jackson estate is said to be nearing an agreement to sell half its stake in the late pop star’s music catalogue for almost $US1 billion.

US popstar Michael Jackson. Picture: AFP

The Michael Jackson estate is said to be nearing an agreement to sell half its stake in the late pop star’s music catalogue for almost $US1 billion ($1.4bn).

Variety, the Hollywood trade magazine, reported that Sony and a possible financial partner were working to secure 50 per cent of the estate’s interests in Jackson’s publishing and recorded music revenues, as well as his upcoming biopic and other assets.

The deal is said to be worth between $US800 million and $US900 million, which would make it by far the biggest such agreement in the music rights industry.

Barry Massarsky, a partner in music economics and valuation at Citrin Cooperman consultants, said the strength of the streaming and licencing businesses had created a market in which share prices were rising and which would probably continue to expand despite increasing interest rates and turbulence in the economy.

Massarsky said he was aware of other big deals in the pipeline. He told The Times: “It’s a very strong business and it will continue to be a very strong business as the conditions are very positive right now. Everything in the industry points towards a high value for [the deal of] Michael Jackson.”

He added: “We call these deals ‘vintage copyright’. And Michael Jackson, he is just that big a player that there is no surprise about these figures.”

From 2013 to 2020 Jackson topped Forbes’s list of the highest-paid late celebrities. Picture: AFP

Amid a gold rush for music rights, stars and their estates have cashed in with huge deals in recent years. Musicians nearing the end of their careers have been persuaded to part with their life’s work in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars.

The publishers and Wall Street investors who provide the money are betting that the music will eventually prove popular enough to pay for itself.

Once obtained, songs from performers with the global reach of Jackson can be licensed in various forms of media including film, television and advertising. Deals often encompass two components - the songwriting rights, also known as publishing, and recorded work.

Sony paid around $US500 million for the publishing and recorded music catalogues of Bruce Springsteen, while Universal paid almost $US400 million for the rights to Bob Dylan’s songwriting catalogue. Sony paid an estimated $US150 million to dollars 200 million for Dylan’s recordings.

Younger stars are cashing in too. Justin Bieber, 28, sold the rights to his early career music to Hipgnosis, a UK-based music investment company, for a reported $US200 million.

If the reported figures for the Jackson deal are correct, it would be by far the biggest. Allegations that the singer, who died aged 50 in 2009, sexually abused young boys do not appear to have dimmed interest in his music. From 2013 to 2020 Jackson topped Forbes’s list of the highest-paid late celebrities. In 2021 he was third, with an income of $US75 million.

His back catalogue includes some of the most acclaimed and popular music of all time. Thriller, Jackson’s 1982 album, is the best-selling album in history, with 70 million copies sold.

The Times